Handmade crafts you can sell are a great way to earn extra cash, but the most successful ones usually share some key traits. They’re cheap to make, easy to produce in small batches, personal enough to gift or customise, and meaningful enough that people don’t just buy the cheaper factory-made version. They should also allow for markup after you factor in the costs of materials, packaging, fees and labour.
This list is full of products that meet those criteria. These DIY ideas for crafts to sell are easy enough for beginners and include everything from handmade goods, home decor, and gift ideas to digital products. They’re all options that can be created by one person in a small home business and sold at craft fairs, online platforms and even through your own website. Everything from paint-your-own tote bags to printable planners can help you turn a small profit by spending little money.
P.S. Love these crafts? Pin this post for later and refer back to it when you’re ready to make your next handmade item.
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1. Paint Cheerful Canvas Tote Bags
Plain cotton tote bags are cheap to buy in bulk and instantly become valuable handmade products with a little paint. Pick a simple subject like lemons, flowers, hearts or checkerboard prints, then replicate the same image in several colourways so customers can choose their favourites without doubling your workload.
2. Create Pressed Flower Wall Art
Pressed flower art is inexpensive to make and is instantly giftable. Space dried flowers evenly between sheets of glass or on heavy handmade paper, taking care to leave space around each bloom so the final arrangement doesn’t look cluttered.
3. Make Personalised Clay Wedding Portraits
Clay portraits don’t need to look perfectly realistic to capture a couple’s clothes, hair, pets or flowers. This is one of the more labour-intensive ideas on the list, but customisation lets you charge appropriately high prices to make it worth your while.
4. Design Printable Wall Art
Printable wall art allows beginners to earn money from their designs without storing products or packing orders. Design several prints with complementary colours, such as Mediterranean scenes, botanical designs or nursery prints, then offer a small selection of ready-made print sizes.
5. Shape Floral Polymer Clay Earrings
Tiny earrings can be made from unfired polymer clay, which means you can get started with making your own really easily. Start with one shape, like a teardrop or crescent, then add swirls, flowers or hand-formed petals with teeny cutting tools and moulds.
6. Personalise Hand-Painted Wooden Signs
Painted or burnt wooden signs are easy to customise for patio gardens, kids’ bedrooms, weddings and general gift-giving. Use stencils or trace lettering guides to keep your words neat, then create a small set of repeatable designs alongside completely custom messages.
7. Sew Pretty Fabric Bandanas
A plain cotton square becomes a distinctive handmade product when decorated with repeating wooden-block prints and soft, natural colours. Beginners can start with ready-made printing blocks, fabric-safe dye and one simple motif.
These versatile bandanas can be worn around the head, neck or wrist, or used as napkins, aprons and reusable foraging cloths, giving buyers plenty of reasons to use them.
8. Make Coordinated Greeting Card Sets
Sets of cards are more substantial than one card alone, plus many people still like to have birthday or thank-you cards ready to hand. Paint/print a whole collection, then change the flowers or colours slightly between cards so they coordinate without being identical.
9. Create Personalised Gift Tag Bundles
Gift tags cost very little to produce in small runs for weddings, baby announcements, parties and small businesses. Decide on a standard layout first, then customise names, dates and wording before selling as a bundle.
10. Paint One-of-a-Kind Glass Vases
Loose flowers, polka dots or swirls of colourful paint make plain glass vases giftable. Use paint designed for vases that looks good enough to keep but won’t wash off if your customer does want to use it. Create a few shape ranges and different designs so each vase feels bespoke.
11. Make Personalised Beaded Keyrings and Bag Charms
Turn inexpensive keyrings into heartfelt gifts with letter beads. Stocking a small range of bead colours and pre-made charms will keep costs down, then charge extra for birthstones, monograms and charms that match special occasions… you can even sell them as kits that customers can make up themselves.
12. Personalise Birth Flower Tumblers
Personalised tumblers feel especially giftable when each design combines a name with the recipient’s birth flower. Start with plain insulated tumblers and create one floral template for each month, then simply change the name and colour details for each order.
13. Design Floral Clipart PNG Bundles
Clipart can be sold on repeat without creating stock, making it ideal if you enjoy painting or digital illustration. Create themed bundles like cottage wildflowers, autumn leaves and botanical studies, including a mix of single flowers and bouquets.
14. Pour Small-Batch Soy Wax Tea Lights
Tea light candles use less wax than jar candles and can be easily bundled together as budget-friendly gifts. Test several wax, wick and essential oil combinations until you find ones you love, then design your own seasonal or themed blends.
15. Create Wax Melt Gift Boxes
With wax melts, you can pour several scents without needing lots of jars and they’re super popular with customers on Etsy and at craft fairs. Package several coordinating melts in a ready-for-gifting box to boost profit margins.
16. Stitch Embroidered Corner Bookmarks
Corner bookmarks let you turn tiny cuts of felt and leftover embroidery floss into great gifts that sell well. Come up with one embroidery pattern you love then secure the edges so they’ re durable. Themes can fit any hobbies, from reading and gardening to coffee-drinking.
17. Make Playful Biscuit-Shaped Coasters
Cheeky resin biscuit coasters are functional but charming enough to stand out in your craft booth. Find coaster moulds that work with eco-resin or other casting products, then paint on eye-catching details. Package together as part of a tea-break coaster set.
18. Paint Personalised Family Christmas Ornaments
Holiday ornaments aren’t just for Christmas trees. Offer a few simple ornament styles that your customers can customise with names, locations, drawings of their family or their pets faces.
19. Build an All-in-One Digital Planner
Digital planners require effort at the start but can be replicated infinitely and save you materials. Make yours functional with month-links, weekly spaces to schedule and perhaps some trackers focused around your customer base.
20. Crochet Cheerful Car Mirror Hangings
Small crochet crafts are adorable and a great way to put basic skills and leftover yarn to good use. Look for subjects that lend themselves to being crochet like florals, animals, fruit, or whimsical characters.
Before You Go...
Ideally, the crafts you sell should be things that you love to make. You should be able to reproduce them easily and still earn a good profit. Begin with a couple of favorites. Build a small collection based on your own tastes and let demand from your customers tell you what to make next.